I need to play with the new Apple M4 Mac Mini, iMac and MacBook Pro

In a trendy corner of Los Angeles, California, I got to try a new Mac Mini, iMac And MacBook Pro Apple’s just-announced machines are powered by the company’s new M4 chips with Apple Intelligence AI technology.

These updated computers and laptops offer a number of improvements, some of which are minimal, such as Thunderbolt 5 ports in the MacBook Pro and the smaller size of the Mac Mini. But the biggest advancement is the introduction of Apple-designed M4 chips across all models, which provide more AI features, capabilities, and gaming performance. I saw some of these at the Apple show in Los Angeles, including demos with audio creation, video editing, and gaming, and was impressed.

A few caveats: I wasn’t able to run any benchmarks or test anything other than what was available as part of Apple’s demos. Stay tuned for our full reviews coming soon, which will show exactly how Apple’s line of M4 Mac Mini, iMac and Macbook Pro models compare to their predecessors, as well as growing competition from Microsoft’s CoPilot Plus AI-powered computers.

The M4 iMac’s colors are nice, but not too vibrant

Despite the surprisingly simple list of colors (Apple usually adds some hyperbolic adjectives to the names of its shades), the iMac M4’s rainbow was too visually appealing to ignore. M4 iMacs come in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green and silver in a subtle two-tone color scheme. The back of the computer has a bolder version of the shade, while the metal stand and front panel below the display are slightly washed-out versions of the same color.

This makes them more attractive than ever, and they’re just as thin as last year’s iMac M3 models. New are Thunderbolt 4 ports (two in the cheaper dual-USB-C configuration, or four in the more expensive one), a clearer 12-megapixel camera that allows Central stageand an optional nano-texture display that reduces glare, useful for office workers with lighting at awkward angles.

I’ve also seen a new program called Desktop Viewer that shows you what’s on your desktop underneath your iMac’s display. While this seemed gimmicky, it could be useful for streamers working on crafts, for example, or teachers writing math equations by hand over Zoom.

Adorably small but powerful Mac Mini

I’m a big fan of small gadgets, so I found the new Mac Mini to be as visually beautiful as it is powerful. As with foldable flip phones, the extra thickness is a worthwhile trade-off if it means reducing the overall footprint of the device. Apple has kindly placed the old Mac Mini next to the new one, and while the former is still an impressive size, the new Mini can be held in one hand. It’s an M4-based computer that you can throw in your purse.

Yes, Apple made another infamous design choice by placing the power button at the bottom, but the new Mini is easier to tilt up to turn it on (if people are turning off their computers more). The added USB-C 3 ports on the front are a nice addition for accessories that don’t require the 40 gigabits per second of bandwidth of the three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front, and HDMI and Ethernet ports on the back—everything you need is there.

One of the demos ran on a Mac Mini and showed how it could run audio editing software Logic, where AI Music Maker could add AI-generated music tracks to videos. They can be created piecemeal, adding layer upon layer of drums, bass, keyboards and other musical elements, each of which can be customized using extensive controls, without any knowledge of music theory.

For example, our demo added kick drums and hi-hat cymbals by simply clicking a few icons to add complexity to the track (in this case, more frequent and varied drums between the main beats). Melodic instruments can raise and lower octave scales, and piano keyboards can select one or both “hands” to add high, low, or both ranges of chord scales to the sound. It’s all generated on the fly by artificial intelligence and can be used royalty-free.

Macbook Pro is Siri, ChapGPT and a slot machine

The new Macbook Pro models don’t add anything to the layout or design over last year’s M3 models, although the lower-end M4 14-inch Macbook Pro now features three USB-C ports instead of two. In fact, all this year’s models come with three Thunderbolt 5 ports, delivering up to 120 gigabytes per second of throughput.

On a top-of-the-range 16-inch Macbook Pro with the M4 Max chip and 128GB of RAM, I saw a demo ask Siri AI to perform several tasks, including giving advice on how to merge PDFs. Thanks to Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT, I saw an AI chatbot respond to a more complex query asking what to do in Malibu. In both cases, the system took a few seconds to respond, which is about the same time the iMac required multiple desks to complete the same task. Laptops can also turn photos into AI-generated cartoons in about the same few seconds—somewhat similar to the image generator feature demonstrated on PC Microsoft CoPilot Plus released earlier this year.

The most impressive achievement I saw from the M4 chips was the pixel movement for Remedy Entertainment’s 2019 game Control. Apple chose a third-person shooter portion set in dark, gloomy caves lit by bright flashes to showcase the M4’s ray tracing capabilities. As I stomped through puddles of water to shoot enemies, I could see precise reflections of my surroundings. Of course, this worked on a fully loaded Macbook Pro with an M4 Max chip and 128GB of RAM, so I’m curious how more modest configurations handle such a graphics load.

Overall, the Los Angeles demo session was a brief and controlled yet enticing look at Apple’s new line of computers. Some will captivate with their looks, others with modest upgrades, but all promise improved performance that unlocks the power of artificial intelligence. Although it’s worth noting that we won’t know how indispensable these tools are until Apple Intelligence takes off and software companies integrate next-generation technologies.